*Photo from the San Diego Union Tribune*
Here comes Smashville. Michael McCarron scored two goals, Filip Forsberg scored the winning goal, and the Nashville Predators defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins with a 3-2 overtime victory on Tuesday night in Nashville.
After 4 straight losses, the Predators have been on fire as of late, winning their 6th straight game and 5th straight at home as they improved their record to 11-10-0. McCarron's two goal game and Forsberg contributing a goal and an assist paced the Predators on the scoresheet.
McCarron said of the team's win streak that "It's tough to beat us. It’s fun to play. We roll over teams and just keep rolling and rolling. We’re finally starting to play as a group of five on the ice, which is awesome. If we can continue to get better every single day, we’ll be a force."
At the 10:20 mark of the first period, McCarron started the scoring for the Predators, making it 1-0 on his second goal of the season. Forsberg and Philip Tomasino assisted on McCarron's second goal of the game later in the first to make it 2-0. Evgeni Malkin scored the only goal of the second period, making it a 2-1 game.
Just 2:26 into the 3rd period, the Penguins tied the game. The only goal of the period went to Bryan Rust, making it 2-2 on his 10th goal of the season, assisted by John Ludvig and Jake Guentzel. Overtime didn't last long. Just 14 seconds into the extra time, Forsberg scored to send the Predators home happy.
Predators forward Gustav Nyquist said after the game that "I’m just happy with the way the team is playing right now. Obviously, it’s fun to get on a little bit of a roll here. It’s hard to do in this league. We’ve just got to keep doing the same things. We beat a pretty good team today. Overall, I thought kind of a back-and-forth game, but I thought we had a really strong third after they scored. I thought we were the ones that were pushing the play, and that was really nice to see today."
Starting in net for the Predators was the usual suspect, Juuse Saros, who improved to 8-9-0 in 17 starts with the win. Saros stopped 29 of the 31 shots the Penguins tested him with, giving him a .935 save percentage.
Getting the start for the Penguins opposite Saros was Tristan Jarry, who took the overtime loss as his record dropped to 7-8-1 in 16 starts. Jarry turned aside 23 out of the 26 shots on goal the Predators had, recording a .885 save percentage.
Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan said that "Nashville has played really well. They had won five in a row going into it. Their top line is dynamic. Forsberg is having a great year. They’ve got Josi and McDonagh This is a good hockey team. We came out of the first period down; I thought our team played well. And that’s what we told them. We’ve just got to stay with it. We’ve got to dig in and try to work to get the next goal and claw back into the game. I give the players a lot of credit. I thought we did that."
Both teams get back in action on Thursday. The Predators are expected to start Saros as they face the Minnesota Wild, while Jarry is the likely starter for the Penguins against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
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